[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 102 (Thursday, July 17, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1454]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO DR. BOB GRAVES

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB SCHAFFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 17, 1997

  Mr. BOB SCHAFFER of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay 
tribute to Dr. Bob Graves. Casual acquaintances knew Bob as a dairy 
farmer from an old Colorado family. His early days were spent on a 
cattle ranch in Bellvue, CO. He became a veterinarian, worked to 
increase the family herd and operation, and built Graves Dairy. Many 
knew him for early mornings spent having breakfast at Vern's in 
LaPorte, dressed in Levi's, eyes shaded by bushy gray eyebrows. He 
always had a ready and realistic comment on the subject of the day. 
Others knew him as a savvy and tenacious opponent in local political 
battles. He stood up for private property rights, farming and ranching 
interests, and other ideals he held high. If you fought with him, you 
did so with admiration. If you fought against him, you did so with 
trepidation.
  But most don't know the Bob who turned a personal tragedy--his 
daughter's death from leukemia--into hope and a future for thousands 
and thousands of people around the world. His daughter was one of the 
recipients of a bone marrow transplant before the medical community 
understood how critical it was to match donor and recipient marrow. 
While the operation was not successful, the Laura Graves Foundation, 
founded in her memory, has become a $50 million research organization 
that has greatly improved the chances for leukemia patients. He and the 
foundation created the matching bone marrow donor program in this 
country and across the world.
  Although grieving over his own loss, he and his wife, Sherry, devoted 
their lives to this priceless project. Bringing together scientists, 
politicians, public relations experts, and cancer victims, he worked to 
improve what had already been started. Building upon the sponsorship of 
the American Red Cross, he managed to create a board of directors who 
were household names. Their reputations, the progress of better funded 
research, and constant persistence, created the life-saving bone marrow 
program. He brought together Senator Kennedy and Admiral Zumwalt, Nobel 
Prize winners and corporations, the American Navy and Russian Chernobyl 
victims. He and the foundation brought common goals and methods to the 
scientific community in China, England, Russia, the United States, and 
elsewhere. After a politically prominent and wealthy American family 
circumvented the donor system and bought their way to the front of the 
line, Bob demanded a fool-proof system that would treat all victims 
equally.
  We all enjoy knowing about people who strive to make the news, those 
who fight for their 15 minutes for fame, but we don't often know about 
people who just quietly persevere in order to save us and our loved 
ones. That was Bob Graves. He had a brilliant mind surpassed only by 
his compassionate heart. When he died, he was creating another 
foundation--the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Foundation to 
bring together the worldwide scientific community working on ``chronic 
wasting disease'' in wildlife, ``mad cow'' disease in livestock, and 
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people. Again, he was starting the project 
with his own money in order to benefit people and industry.
  Bob Graves, D.V.M., was one person who left the world a better place.

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